4 Creativity and wellbeing

In this section, you are invited to explore how involvement in creative activities can directly benefit children and young people’s wellbeing. For example, some creative activities offer opportunities for learning or provide a place or space where identity, interests and passions can develop that may positively influence mental health and self-esteem. There is further potential for practitioners to use creative activities as a vehicle to offer support to children and young people that might positively impact their individual needs, circumstances and wellbeing. For example, considered and clearly planned ideas for learning activities which engage children and young people in discussing lived experiences, personal feelings or current world or societal issues.

Although opportunities for creativity can take place at various points in everyday life, it is interesting to see how they can be portrayed and considered in a policy context. One example is the large scoping study (which is a review of current literature) published by the World Health Organization (WHO), which shows the importance of the arts for health and wellbeing for people of all ages (Fancourt and Finn, 2019). Although creativity can be broader than just the arts, this study is useful to consider. First, it signals an increasing interest in policy, practice and research in the broad area of wellbeing. Second, some of the findings can be applied usefully to the demographic group of children and young people. WHO present the results from this scoping study under two broad themes, presented in the table below, which show how the arts can benefit health at different stages of life.

Broadly, the table illustrates how engagement in the arts might be used at various life stages to benefit the health of individuals. The possible ways for this to take place are outlined at the start of the report.

In relation to health research, engagement with the arts has been proposed as consisting of five broad categories (Fancourt and Finn, 2019, p. 1):

• performing arts (e.g. activities in the genre of music, dance, theatre, singing and film)
• visual arts, design and craft (e.g. crafts, design, painting, photography, sculpture and textiles)
• literature (e.g. writing, reading and attending literary festivals)
• culture (e.g. going to museums, galleries, art exhibitions, concerts, the theatre, community events, cultural festivals and fairs)
• online, digital and electronic arts (e.g. animations, film-making and computer graphics).

These categories provide a good starting point for considering opportunities for children and young people to engage in creative opportunities. Importantly, the WHO’s study notes that positive engagement in creative activities can trigger psychological, physiological, social and/or behavioural responses that can be beneficial to wellbeing. They note the following possible components that may be integral to the link between the arts and wellbeing: aesthetic engagement, involvement of the imagination, sensory activation, evocation of emotion, cognitive stimulation, social interaction, physical activity, engagement with themes of health and interaction with healthcare settings (Fancourt and Finn, 2019, p. 3).

To understand these components better, we are introducing you to three specific examples of creative activities that include the views of children and young people who take part in them.